Mix and Master with iZotope (Native Intstruments) Ozone (11) - Getting as Loud as You Possibly Can!

I just finished my Album "A Little Bit of Techno", but had big problems with mix and master. I couldn't get as loud as competitors. It was incredible: I pushed it as far as I could with Ableton onboard devices but every time the reference track blew me away.

So, I was lucky that the mastering engineer I contacted didn't like me so I came to Ozone. And it just blew me away! You press a button and it maximizes everything so that no leaf of paper fits between EQ and limiter.

So now I don't need to take care of getting loud enough to not drown in the mass of lately released tracks but it still didn't sound well. I still was bad at mixing and no mastering engineer can fix a bad mix.

But what's the thing? Well, the last device in a mastering chain is the limiter. The limiter cuts off everything that is too loud so that there is no distortion in the final product. For that to work all frequencies should have about the same level, because the limiter compresses everything, also the frequencies that should not be compressed. For example, if you have a kick that is too loud, the limiter will compress the kick but also make everything else quieter with the result, that you're not at the maximum loudness possible with all frequencies. In direct comparison, people will sort out music that is quieter than other tracks.

You can use Ozone just like that: Press the "learn" button and feel fine. Or: You adjust your mix to help Ozone to perform even better.

That's the method I'm outlining here: Mixing towards Ozone.

So, you finished your mix, run Ozone and everything seems fine, right?

Wrong! You probably still have problems in your mix. Let's find them.

First, look at the EQ. Ozone shows you where it thinks you have too little or too much:

Now you pick one knot, solo it and listen, which sounds you hear most:

Here kick and bass are way too overpowered. That means I can fix this in my mix before Ozone has to take care of it in the sum. So I lower the lower frequencies for kick and bass and adjust the bass ducking. Then I restart the Ozone learning process:

That's looking much better. After fixing the EQ, I move to the Dynamic EQ. There you can see which frequencies need a little damping:

A dynamic EQ works like a compressor at certain frequencies. You're using a Dynamic EQ if you don't want to adjust the whole frequency, only if a frequency goes above a certain level. It's a multiband compressor that looks like an EQ.

So, Ozone thinks those frequencies need correction. Again, I listen to the frequencies in solo, determine the channels making problems and fix them in the source so that Ozone doesn't have to do it on the sum.

I guess Ozone will always find frequencies for the dynamic EQ, so don't push it too far. But after this process I have a much more evened out mix. Actually the spectrum is pretty even form low to high. At this point, I even would recommend to eliminate a little more frequencies than too few. I found the word "Notching" as a mixing technique, suggesting to low- and high cut more than you're usually willing to admit. People don't know your track and won't miss what's not there. If your track is full, more space will work miracles.

I just scratched the surface with Ozone, but like that you'll surely find a better sounding mix for your tracks, too.

Good luck!